Celebrating Volunteers
Article written by: Laura Pearson
National Volunteers Week takes place from 2nd - 8th June and is a great opportunity to recognise one of the many important volunteers within our Community Council. Our volunteer editor Thana Mitchell pulls together the local newsletter four times a year and is definitely worth celebrating! I had to really persuade her to let me write this article!
Thana has been editing this newsletter since November 2019 when she saw a vacancy in the newsletter, offered her help and was taken on as volunteer editor. With only a few weeks until the print deadline, she got straight into work on the December issue. Working with the designer, another volunteer, Thana took on the job of sourcing articles, preparing content and adverts. All of this had previously been done by Ann Kay for a long time and Thana says “I had very big shoes to fill.”
With only about two and a half weeks to turn it around, they did it! And Thana was hooked.
A change of circumstances meant that Thana later on had to take on the design aspect of the newsletter as well. The role became a much bigger job, but Thana reflected that she really enjoys the culmination of all the parts coming together to create the finished product.
Thana has always been adamant that the newsletter needs a good balance of adverts and interesting, informative articles to encourage readers to turn the pages, not just chuck it out.
There was always a good range of people providing content for the newsletter, but over the years the number of contributors has grown. Thana is always keen to hear from anyone who has a story to tell or a news item to share.
With the newsletter being fully funded by the advertising costs, Thana is pleased to see the support given by advertisers growing as well. Many have supported this newsletter for a long time, and many new advertisers have also come on board. Thana cares about the adverts looking good and puts a lot of effort into communicating with the advertisers. She has also designed most of the adverts. With all contact done by email, she has built good relationships despite never having met most of them in person.
Thana has a very clear production timeline for the newsletter: “I know it's a newsletter, but I see it as organising an event. I have the deadline, and I work backwards to get all the different aspects in place at the right time.”
Thana says her role as volunteer editor keeps her skills up to date. She also enjoys the opportunity to work with different people and organisations and gets a great sense of achievement and pride every time a new newsletter is completed.
Thank you, Thana, for all of the work you do in putting together this wonderful newsletter for our community!
